March Madness: Ready (no)...Set (No!)...Dance (OH NO!)...

March Madness is upon us! It's that glorious time of year when the workplace grinds to a halt and people who haven't watched a minute of college basketball all season long start acting like Dick Vitale. The catch phrase du jour: "Oh I was going to pick them!"

In the continuing era of one-and-done in NCAA basketball, you seem to have a better shot at predicting who will still be alive in the finale of Game of Thrones than predicting who will be cutting down the nets in San Antonio April 2nd.

It's still fun, or usually is through the first weekend, before all the Cinderella glass slippers go bust.

Local flavor...not much there. You'll have to enjoy your NIT Bracket for that (GoDawgs). As much as I would like to see Gonzaga make a return to the Final Four and to win the championship game this time, I don't see it. It's an Elite Eight run for the Zags this year.

Number 1's - Weakest crop in my recent memory. Normally you can go chalk with at least two, if not three of the regions in the bracket. Not this time. Virginia loses the ACC's top 6th man before the tourney tips-off. It looks like another "fantastic record/weak conference, I just can't trust them" team in Kansas. Xavier is a great story, but one that will not end happy...nope. Villanova? The NCAA loves Villanova, just look at their path to the Final Four in the East.

So with a grand total of 45-minutes worth of research, critical thinking and coin-flipping, here's the gold folks...make of it what you will!